Abstract
We analyzed the characteristics of 112 consecutive patients who were operatively
treated for osteochondral lesions of the talus from August 2014 to April 2019 in
our hospital. The patients were divided into three age groups: young-adult
(<40 years), middle-age (40–60 years) and old-age (>60
years). The basic clinical features, localization and size of the lesions,
Hepple stage, and surgical procedures were compared among groups. Several
significant differences were found on the characteristics of osteochondral
lesions of the talus among age groups. There were more female patients in the
old-age group (p<0.01), and old patients had a longer duration of
symptoms (p<0.05). The OLTs in middle- and old-age patients were mostly
located in the medial part of the talus with larger depth (p<0.01).
Hepple stage 5, the cystic type, was very common in the old-age group
(p<0.01). With regard to surgical procedures, more osteochondral
autograft transplantations were applied in the old-age group (p<0.01).
Female and deep medial talar subchondral cyst is the typical characteristics of
patients over 60 years old. Age is an important factor that must be considered
when choosing surgery procedure for patients with osteochondral lesions of the
talus.
Key words
osteochondral lesion - ankle - age - localization - talus
